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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. My Name Is Jorge |
| 2. Roll And Tumble |
| 3. 1st In Line |
| 4. Foggy Blossoms |
| 5. The Bridge |
| 6. Ants On The Melon |
| 7. Hellhounds |
| 8. Blankets |
| 9. Short Guy Spiritual Rap |
| 10. Bottle & A Dime |
| 11. Right In The Head |
| 12. Hamfisted Box Of Gloves |
| 13. Prayer That Fell Upon The Mirror |
| 14. Sweet Nutty |
| 15. Ceiling"s Leaking |
| 16. Smoke Bend |
Product Description
Album Description
Cow, Fish, Fowl or Pig is like all the other Gourds releases, a long one. There are seventeen tracks plus on this thing. Their shortest, 1998's Ghosts Of Hallelujah, was a mere 14 songs. "We always talk about making shorter records", muses Mr. Kev Russell, "but by the end we are always so in love with them (the songs) that we cannot bare to abandon any." So it goes with their 6th document in the 7 years of recording for this Austin, TX based "Rag, Bone & Roots" combo. Cow, Fish, Fowl Or Pig was recorded in an extremely short period of time, roughly 2 weeks in Austin during the winter, January 2002 with just the boys and a lone engineer, Stewart Sullivan, one of Austin's finest knob twiddlers. Sullivan was an integral part of the decision making and creative spewing that eventually became, what many think, is the Gourds freshest recording to date.
About the Artist
The Gourds rose out of Russell and Smith's former band, The Picket Line Coyotes, a hard-working, post-punk Southwestern rock'n'roll band who started in Shreveport, LA, and then migrated to Dallas, TX and eventually Austin. Looking to make music with greater song impact, the two retrenched after the Coyotes broke up as an acoustic outfit called The Grackles, joined by Claude Bernard (brother of Coyote Rob Bernard) on accordion. Add to the mix, drummer Keith Langford and later, multi-talented Max Johnson and you've got a musical combination the likes of which only a town like Austin can produce. Eclectic, eccentric, and drawing on all senses, from punk to hip-hop to blues to country & western, it's all here woven together in an indescribable musical landscape as only they can paint.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Austin's finest return with an album that the good folks of Nashvile may not rate too highly.
On the other hand, those of us that look beyond Dollywood for our kicks are in for a few quid's worth of hot enterainment.
The band have opted for a more live, more orgsnic sound than their last studio outing. In fact, reviewers of ten years or so ago would have begun by labelling the album as The Gourds own Exile On Main Street.
Max Johnstone's fiddle is very much to the fore, giving the album a more straight ahead country flavour than is usual. However, the quirkiness is very much intact.
From the opening salvo of My Name Is Jorge to the Beefheart goes country of Ants On The Melon, diehard fans will not be disappointed,
Possibly not the best starting place for newcomers to the oddball Austin sound, but a must for the diehards.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Best album of 2002
19 Oct 2002
Format:Audio CD
That's right, the best album of 2002. Being a fan of all the past Gourds albums I knew I would not be disapointed. But this, this album is packed full of great great songwriting. There is not a bad tune here. In the past I would give a Gourds album 3 1/2 to 4 stars. There might be a few clunkers here and there, but here the guys pull it all together. I have not stopped playing it since the day it first came out. You have everything from The Band sounding "Ham-fisted box of gloves" to the very funny and clever "My name is Jorge". Do yourself a favor and forget about Bruce's new album (3 stars) forget about Pettty's new album (2 1/2 Stars) and even Steve Earls new album (3 stars) and pick up "Cow fish fowl pig" (5 Stars) and have a good time.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
It'll cure what ails ya!
22 April 2003
Format:Audio CD
Talk about a band paying off! This has all that makes the Gourds great concentrated in one place. A natural progression from where the band started, it just blows the doors off genre and mixes and matches with abandon. The only artist it reminds me of Tom Waits but only in so much the music is really steeped in musicianship and the words comes from some backwoods poetry reading. Kev delivers some suprising tracks with the swing of "Mechanical Bride", the saucy "Ants on A Melon", and the cajun rock of "Bottle & Dime". Jimmy really kicks his surrealistic bucket with the shaggy dog tale of Jorge, the brilliant ramble of "The Bridge", and the Stonesy but not "Ceiling's Leaking". Max is perfecting a sound which while not the same as his fellow songwriters is solid and complimentary. This time they really blend rather than stand away like his songs from the very good Bolsa. I especially like the solid country pop of "Best Of Me" and the canjun shuffle of "Smokey Bend" (which if my guess is right, it's sung by his dad!). Want more highlights? Roll and Tumble, Hellhounds, Blankets...it's just one great song after another! Granted, Sweet Nutty is more amusing to me than anything and, I really didn't need to hear the spiritual guy raps more than once. I think this album is a why The Gourds are far and away from the pack. It leaves me a one big happy wreck! How many albums can you say that about?
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Captures the Live Gourds Sound Best
18 Sep 2002
Format:Audio CD
To me, it is absolutely amazing that the Gourds made such a perfectly produced album, that sounded so live at the same time without a producer in the studio. With this album as opposed to the others, Max takes a more firm role in the band with his poignant songwriting like in "Blankets". We also see the new directions that songwriters Jimmy Smith and Kevin Russel are taking. Kevin is going for a more rollicking, Texas-Louisiana feel, but experimenting at the same time with a classic rocker like "Sweet Nutty". Jimmy's songs "Hellhounds" and "My name is Jorge" are wonderful rambling stories. While "Bridges" and "Ceiling Leaking" rock more-- they also sway more towards his vague, surreal, cool metaphors. "The Prayer that Fell Upon a Mirror" is exactly that with a dissonant mexican feel that reminds me some of "Coppermine" off of Stadium Blitzer. Kevin also throws in surreal poetry with "Foggy Blossoms, Mechanical Brides", and "Hamfisted Box of Gloves". This album also showcases Claude Bernard's versatile accordion work better than any of their previous albums-- which could be a product of the great production. Overall, I would say-- GET THIS CD! You won't find a more diverse, versatile, cohesive, and fun mix than The Gourds of Austin, TX.
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